Field notes
Practitioner essays on building production software with AI agents.
Operator-grade reports on the systems, decisions, and economics of shipping software with AI — what worked, what failed, and what changed.
Articles
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You Trust the Lowest Bidder. But Not the Best Frontier Model?
Executive Deck ↗Exec summary ↗Listen ↗You trust the lowest bidder's pull request. Why not the best frontier model inside a system that actually checks the work?
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You Are About to Hire a VP of AI Capability. Do Not.
Executive Deck ↗Exec summary ↗Listen ↗You diagnosed the CoE pattern. Now you are about to repeat it by hiring a VP of AI Capability. Here is why forcing your organization to build the competency itself is the only path that works, why it will be rough, and what the end state looks like when you get it right.
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Your Transformation Org Just Got a Fifteen-Year Service Award. Now You Want to Repeat That Pattern with AI?
Executive Deck ↗Exec summary ↗Listen ↗Your Agile Transformation VP just got a 15-year service award. The org still cannot release without a CAB meeting. Now you are building an AI team with the same playbook. You know how this ends.
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Stop Asking for “Advanced” AI Training
Executive Deck ↗Exec summary ↗Listen ↗Advanced AI training is a status marker, not a learning objective. Discover what you actually need to know based on your role and current skill level.
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Your Best Salesperson Didn’t Pick Salesforce. Your Best Engineer Shouldn’t Pick Their AI.
Executive Deck ↗Exec summary ↗Listen ↗Your best engineer shouldn’t pick their AI tools any more than your best salesperson picked Salesforce. Make AI infrastructure, not individual choice.
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The Executive Operating Model We Run In Private: Four Sessions That Turn AI Anxiety Into Board-Grade Decisions
Executive Deck ↗Exec summary ↗Listen ↗A detailed, private four-session executive operating model with agendas, timelines, decisions, and risk controls to move from AI confusion to measurable execution.
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I Think I Know Where Your High Performers Are
Executive Deck ↗Exec summary ↗Listen ↗Your heaviest AI users are probably your best people. That’s the easy part. The harder question, the one that actually matters, is who still is not really using it. Go find out. It’s going to be an awkward conversation.
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What Got You Here Won’t Keep You Here: A Letter to VPs of Engineering
Executive Deck ↗Exec summary ↗Listen ↗VPs of Engineering: your playbook is obsolete. Here’s how AI changes everything about how you lead, measure, and develop your organization.
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Gen AI in the SDLC Is Infrastructure Now,And Every One of Your Engineers Picked Their Own
Executive Deck ↗Exec summary ↗Listen ↗Download EPUB ↓Gen AI in the SDLC is now infrastructure, not innovation. But every engineer picked their own stack. Here’s why that’s a governance problem.
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How to Win Without Disruption: The Senior Director’s Guide to AI That Actually Wins
Executive Deck ↗Exec summary ↗Listen ↗Senior Directors: Win the AI transformation without disrupting your political capital. A practical guide to delivering results while managing up.
Essential or Ornamental
Three companies. Three choices. One satisfactory ending.
One does nothing. One maps the waste. One bets everything on twelve people in a warehouse.
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